One common frailty in all gaming machines is the cumulative effect of successive losses. While players have been acclimated to certain precepts such as engaging a machine when the machine or player is "hot" or "on a roll", there is no concomitant shibboleth with respect to the physiological perdition associated with successive losses. As a consequence, players can become disinterested in gaming and inure to the perception of playing abatement based on the perception of a "cold streak".
The universe of games which provide a clear demarcation between winners and losers are legion in their numbers.
As an ancillary to these problems, there are games which allow players who win to enjoy a multiplicitive effect from having a special award bestowed should the win achieve a certain value against a paytable. These awards can sometimes be configured as a spinning wheel which, once the wheel stops rotating or a electronic equivalent thereof, provides a multiplier to the award paid a person already declared winner. While such games enhance the level of interest to people who already are about to have an award bestowed upon them, the problem of maintaining the interest of the vast majority of players whose original outcome are determined a loss remains unresolved.
The following patents reflect the state of the art of which applicant is aware and are included herewith to discharge the applicant's acknowledged duty to disclose known prior art. It is respectfully submitted, however, that none of these patents teach nor render obvious when considered singly or in any conceivable combination the nexus of the present invention as set forth hereinabove and as defined hereinbelow by the claims.
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